"I've had contact with people that were shift workers at QAL and they're looking at getting $9000, another person is hoping for $6000," he told The Observer.

"It's very surprising to be quite honest," he said.

The Gladstone man, who worked for QAL for almost 30 years, took a voluntary redundancy in March last year.

While he said it could be "just an oversight", he said it highlighted how little workers knew about major industries.

"Just goes to show how the little man doesn't understand how the top end of town works," he said.

The former worker received a signed letter from QAL this week, seen by The Observer, explaining the company could owe him money.

The letter says, "Under the National Employment Standards, which applies to QAL, the QAL Alumina Award 2003 and the QAL Enterprise Agreement, when a shift worker requests annual leave, long service leave or personal leave over a period which includes a public holiday, the public holiday should not be deducted from leave balances".

EARLIER 11am:

FORMER Gladstone Rio Tinto workers could be owed money from the mining giant for missed holiday pay.

"We have completed a review into the way we have been recording certain types of leave taken by shift workers on public holidays," the Rio Tinto spokesperson said.

"We will be correcting our records and re-crediting leave taken historically over public holidays for current employees and reimbursing certain former QAL, BSL and Yarwun shift workers in the coming months."

Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union Gladstone organiser Phil Golby said it was a complicated issue and varied depending on a worker's contract agreements.